For about four years, a devoted group of women have been trekking to local laundromats lugging not detergent bottles and boxes of softener, but baskets of books.

Members of the local Delta Nu Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, the women handpick children’s book titles from all interests and reading levels, leave them at the laundromats and later return to clean the books and replenish the selections.

“It’s our goal to make reading a part of the everyday experience of all children and we hope that our Laundromat Literacy program helps local families enjoy time together with books while their clothes spin clean,” said Mary Ellen Carhill of San Dimas.

The project involves volunteers from Delta Kappa Gamma, a group that promotes professional and personal growth among women educators and excellence in education.

The local chapter has 48 members who live and work all over the San Gabriel Valley.

The ladies collect baby board books to middle school chapter books and places book baskets in three or more laundromats in Glendora and Azusa every two weeks, according to Susan Hamilton, a retired Glendora teacher and committee chairwoman.

This project is one of many homegrown programs supported by the DKG Chi State LIFE (Learning Is For Everyone) Foundation which supports special projects related to learning and literacy within California.

The campaign has also found support from The Book Bin in Glendora (now closed), Friends of the Glendora Library, service clubs, and, of course, its teacher-members and their families.

“Children who come to the laundromat with their parents are there for two hours or more,” said member Carol Harmon. “We hope they will spend their time with some of our books to develop a love of reading. The ideal is that the parents will read to them if they cannot read themselves. However, children also like to look at the pictures, find words they know, or pretend to read by telling about the pictures. Hopefully it also keeps some overly active children a little calmer.”

The women would like to expand to more laundromats, although they have had to give up on ones where their baskets and books regularly go missing.

“We’re `secretly’ delighted when we come up a few books short each delivery, because we know someone has loved a book so much they had to take it home to read again,” Hamilton said.

Some of the book titles in their baskets today include Curious George, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Babysitting Club series, bug books, baseball books, and seasonal books such as snowmen stories.

The happiest ending, of course, is keeping the books at the laundromat, and seeing children and caregivers bond while sudsing their clothes.

“Reading for enjoyment encourages more reading,” Hamilton said. “All that waiting time can be a special one-on-one time for parents and children to read together.”

Hamilton, who herself confesses to being an inveterate reader since childhood, said it’s never a wash to combine reading with free time.

“I often got into trouble for reading my Nancy Drew mystery books under the covers after bedtime or when I was supposed to be helping set the table,” she said.

So, with a bow to the ladies of Delta Nu, here’s to the lucky ones in local laundromats who find themselves gifted with a literary bounty when all they came in for was clean clothes.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.